because I can now afford to have all the software I could possibly need with worrying about pirating. And run it on just about any hardware configuration I can build.

Although I could get most of the Microsoft based software for free if I were to eeer buy a brand new PC already built... but whats the fun in that?

MS Office $$
MS Windows XP/2000/2003/VISTA $$$$$
Multimedia Software $$
Web design Software $$
Antivirus Sofware $$
Cooperate Level Firewall $$$$
E-mail Server $$$$
Database $$$$
Multiple user Licenses Active Directory $$$
Web Server $$$ (have to buy entire Server Product)


the list goes on

I use linux because it's free, fun, cool, different, challenging, great community, free software, no windos viruses and adware, the list goes on and on.

I started with linux because I was curious,
I never thought it was such a fun and that there are so many possibilities with it,
it took me months to get used with it. Because I was lazy and was used to the click ok click click OS of Uncle B Gates.
3 months later I ran a ftp server, Samba was working, All hardware was working, even a cheapo flatbad scanner that I never thought it would work with Linux.
Another 3 months later I've LFS up and running with XFCE.
I feel free, I now have a secure flexible fast stable personal Linux OS which does what I want, the way I want.
I want to thank everyone, together we create this great community and make it possible to helps other people solving problems and learn them things of this great OS.
I also think we may be proud to ourself that we have such a great community.


I was bored of windows, I wanted to learn something, Was sick of perfomance dropouts of windows.
I was tired of defragmenting everytime after installing a big application or game.
Sick of virusscanners and antispyware programs which slowsdown my PC.
Was tired of solving programs if they were crashing and a mysterious dialog pops up if I want to send information to MS which doesnt solve my problem.
Tired of the slow windows update site which also doesn't work with Firefox.
The registry which leaves tons of keys behind if I uninstall a application.
I can go on and on,
and what a shame that I paid so much for it for so many problems! if I knew it I had donated it to a great project which deserves it!.

Ok, my very first post here, just had to go under this topic! I'm sure all my reasons have been covered already (I didn't read all the 1000 sumthin posts), but here are my personal reasons for switching...

1) BLOATWARE!! I'm tired of it. Winblows itself is bloatware, then EVERYTHING you install for it (which costs big $$$), also bloats yer system. I have a 3.4 ghz machine with 1gig dual channel DRAM, and a SATA hard drive. A screaming system (least it should be). But with winblows, it takes 3 minutes to login. That's just logging in, NOT the complete startup which adds at least one more minute! What a joke. Fedora, boom. I'm up. Unbelievable.

2) The virus problem. Windows can basically be known as a virus platform. It seems to be it's sole purpose in life anymore.

3) Microsoft. I hate Microsoft. Always have, always will. Absolutely despise using their crap, but everywhere you go, it's WinXP and MS Office. Blah! OpenOffice.Org is great, and it doesn't cost hundreds of dollars! With Billy boy, it's all about $$$$

4) Apps. All the apps one could ever want or need, can most likely be found for Linux, and they're most likely free. Everything you wanna use for XP costs way too much. More than that bloatware is worth! Not to mention I can probably install them all with yum! hehe.


Those are my main reasons, and I'll never go back to Windoze. Hell, now that I've been using Linux, when I boot my XP drive and use it for whatever reason, the speed difference in everything I do is unreal. Just loading my firefox browser in xp takes 4 times as long as in KDE. I built this machine for speed, and XP is bogging it down. May as well be using a 486sx/33!

I truly believe that Linux is picking up well enough to cause hardware manufacturers to have to open their eyes if they wish to keep up. As computer enthusiasts blossom, they want something more. And when they discover Linux, well, winblows becomes history!

At the time, my "winprinter" doesn't work with Linux (but that's Lexmarks fault I know), and my wireless USB adapters for my kid's computers (they want Linux too). My point? This will not deter me. I will buy a new printer, and new wireless adapter cards if needs be. Linux is my new best friend, and as I use it more and more, I like it more and more. And as I use a windoze machine again, I hate windoze that much more!

So a hearty thanx to all those who put forth the effort, and their time to make the Linux playground so much fun!

Linux for all! The people have spoken!

I like the Penguin....

Forget Linux, Windows is the superior operating system. Thats why it costs so much money. The viruses are really just tons of would be programmers who have nothing better to do with their lives. You get enough of them, shit just happens. Look at linux for example.

Even the mascot is a terrible idea. Who wants some dumb, stinky, flightless wannabe bird to represent their OS. I guess its symbolic enough though.

If you hate linux so much why don't you just push off? This site is called linux questions not Linux diatribes.

If you seriously think that the peice of junk OS called windows is superior to Linux, well all I can say is it must be a lovely fluffy reality that you live in, however back here in the real world......

after KDE loads though, windows xp will have already be loaded(but not really because it is still loading and if you click on something it takes forever to load up and often freezes<my> your computer. KDE loads up in (1 minute>load up) and when its loaded, it runs awesome. You can click something right then and there and it wont take forever.
just my :2cents:


1. i like that it doesn't freeze up nearly as much
2.its free even though i already had win xp pro<well free most of time, unless you buy a box>
3. You can give it to friends
4.. you can have open much more things at the same time without them freezing than windows can

Don't worry about this one. He's just a troll. Look at the previous posts by this user. Every board's gotta have its village idiot.

LOL. I use Linux, bcause I just got tired of all the restrictions "made in redmond".
I use Gentoo 2005.1 with KDE 3.4.1 on an 2.6.12-gentoo-r9 kernel. The hardware is:
Celeron Coppermine 1.1 Ghz, 128 MB SDRAM, GF6200, 80 Gb HDD Seagate Barracuda.

It's not neccesarily inferior.

What happened to the days when people were allowed to just use what they wanted to? I don't think linux is neccesarily better than windows. I just prefer it.

I have to agree. I do prefer a GUI, but its not necessary. My criteria is a working network stack and a browser. With that, I'm good to go.

I switched to Linux for a few reasons:

1) I was curious about it....plus I like to learn new things and tinker.

and the other reason came a little later:

2) Linux knowledge could prove to be very beneficial to my career with doing IT work and networking.

Of course, I did not do a full on switch...I still have Windows around. But I definitely feel, I could easily make the migration to Linux just with my current experience with the OS. The only thing now that keeps me somewhat tied to Windows is school.

Suprisingly the only reason I switched is because of the multiple desktops. Windows has that too but Linux manages them better, faster, and is able to support more desktops than I need.

Linux is already powerfull about time to start making a new help system for newbs. Help system should be more like question & answer. Preferebly to be browsable localy and upgraded via internet.

However what?